Agreed. Also the main slop of mercs set up is that they are not very good at p8 aside the natural utility of the baba as ultra safe teleporter/bo buffer (always GREAT and totally legit, luckily for us)

On the single variations, eg WW barb completely overkill trav at p1 but is able to kill trav at p8 and enter throne before wave 2. It is also hard to use a singer supporter barb at p8 level push unless u ban any endgame blizz sorc from your runs (plus the multiple mercs with forti/freeze aura/rtoll etc really limits your FI anyway) plus, if you have a decent private player base that level push with endgame builds anything past a base CTA is a BO overkill (ofc, this is dependant on how old the ladder is) so, imo, if we consider a mix of "pure" trav gameplay and level push the "real" picks imo are:

-merc based barb and you tele throne at p8 level push
-eg ww barb and you farm trav at wave 1 while level push if the party agrees
- some form of hybrid "pet based" eg zerker that kill trav with merc and immu by himself (and you tele throne for p8 push again)

I think this topic recapped most of this build nicely around multiple budgets (even insane / collection based one) and, if we consider hybrid variations off topic, it is hard at least for me to put any extra insight to it.

GJ ^^

This post was edited by Banjoco on Nov 29 2021 04:46am

I just don't think DPS builds are ideal for goldfinding, since even a decked out Frenzy Barb or Zerker that clears Trav in 20 seconds will be stuck on a 60s timer.
In single player they're absolutely amazing, though. Kinda hard to argue with that.

They're great all-purpose builds past a certain point, you could run a 105FCR Pitzerker with level 38 Find Item at 300-350MF / 1.2k+ goldfind, for instance (my favorite "DPS" Barb); they're just generally worse at goldfinding in particular, since the best spot by a long shot is always going to be Trav due to how Find Item isn't affected by nodrop. P1, P3, P8, it's all the same aside from experience, with the only thing that changes being the minion drop tables at Trav.

If your focus is "level pushing" I don't know why you're even bothering with goldfind honestly. The gambling inbetween is a complete waste of time, generally.

This post was edited by Exokek on Nov 29 2021 04:53am

Level pushing is not a focus but a major consideration when u play any gambler (and especially a merc barb) given how you need breakpoints levels to even roll certain affixes, plus your merc is the most level dependant unit in the game between odds to hit (merc lvl vs lvl target) and might aura being level based, alll res / ar / str level growth etc.

Before 92, for example you can NOT even roll 2/30/20 on coronets and being forced to gamble only circlets is a pain. Unless you plain SPECIFICALLY on reselling IGG 24/7 your merc/barb level IS a major consideration. In fact, you are the MOST level dependant pve build of the game, hands down, and a GOOD strategy to level push is insanely important for this build.

on the "why I play eg WW giving up 1k eg pre hork?" Couz I can play p1, p8, trav, meph plus council pack there, I can fill in any MF run at any player base aside CS, I can level push and do whatever at wave 1 etc. It's not one dimentional while feeling better to play FOR ME. p1 pet trav 24/7 has a "natural" wall of 1 hour or so for me as a grind. You have to ask what kind of grinder you are before considering a one dimentional build and that is completely personal I guess.

This post was edited by Banjoco on Nov 29 2021 05:16am

yeah, you need 87+ for Coronets iirc, 92+ for circlets. 87 is really, really fast to attain & Coronets are totally fine gambles, but 92 is the goal if you want to just spam any headpiece during Gambling.
Focusing on Coronets and having a chance at 3os helmets has also been pretty good $ on my end over time.
93+ for amulets (although 95 is ideal)

The Merc starts looking a lot less idiotic at around level 88~ from experience, but that's not exactly slow to get to.

I hit 91 mostly doing Hell Trav & Pitzerker runs, which is kind of amusing. Hitting 87 is a matter of 1 day after a rush, just tagging along leveling groups/services. Different on new Ladder of course, but still fast as heck.
Hitting 92 is a bit longer, but you can still leech it pretty reliably. The real pain in the ass is 93-95 for Amulets imo, and it's usually why many people never get to craft/gamble those.
Maybe I'm misunderstanding a little bit what you were talking about.

It's generally easy to "level push" to where you can buy Coronets, and not very long to leech 92, whether you're DPSing or not.
Definitely a lot slower if you're just soloing Trav all the time though

btw: did you mess with WolfBarb at all for this? Kinda curious if it kept up with speed glitching in D2R.

This post was edited by Exokek on Nov 29 2021 05:26am

This seems pretty good to socket into andy for a ebotd setup

This post was edited by m12wh1t3 on Nov 29 2021 09:56am

^ good jewel there.

For all IAS glitches out there, I'm following the thing as a whole but I honestly thing that, if u like to do phis dps, the 1.10 limitations till stand:

- there is not a good aoe phisical DPS skill in this patch time (ok, Corpse explosition is 50fire/50phis ), zone got nerfed to the ground in 1.10 and WW got nerfed in LoD even if, IMO, is till playable at p8 with proper set up.

- wolf/tesla/bowa etc are gimpsy char vs any meta build pve farmer, no matter what. I builded a coupled of "gg" pve tesla/bowa in NL mainly for the fun (and couz I loved the spam proc of pre patch torches ^^) but better IAS breakpoints with this frame rate don't cover the HUGE "real" gap that u have vs hdin, light soso, a proper builded java etc

- same things goes for pitzerker. IMO is a nice, niche char for single player holy grail but, in a ladder economy, uniques that are useless are worth NOTHING no matter how rare they are (tyrael *cought*) and I do find that WW/eg hybrid is the only legit "pick" along "pet build" for a barb. The real deal when ladder prices stabilize is in crafting/top notch inventory/blues, not uniques.

The only thing that ATM piss me off is that the weapon swap glitch on Main Hand got fixed in d2r. To main hand a grief in my grief/botd set up I need to have enough dex to equip grief PRE botd, otherwise the game equip botd 1st since in d2r the game check one item at a time even while switching weapon set 1 and 2. Not only I lose 50% DPS on the off hand (botd over grief) but I have to sink 30 more dex into my char compared to d2

Back on your question: as a recap, I don't think that this IAS shenanigans // inventory fixes will over impact PvE at all since phis DPS is TRASH in 1.10, deal with it. They will impact PvP. If you like to do phisical dmg and play PvE, at least imo, u should focus on ubers and don't bother with MF/GF. Best "legit" way to play around with all those ias changes ongoing, hands down.

This post was edited by Banjoco on Nov 29 2021 12:08pm

Yeah I have a 30ed 40damage demons 24 fire res, etc. Got a couple of gg ones like that from seeking them, but yeah. Amazing jewel.

very cool writeup. Thank you for doing this! I want to make one now.

I have a few questions:

1. What do you think of this budget merc? E obedience thresher / Kiras / either treach or wealth (I know you said treach and wealth are ass, I just dont have the ber to spare right now on the CoH)

If that's the wrong budget gear, what should I get instead?

2. If blizz updates the game to eventually do away with between game cooldowns, would that give an edge to the frenzy/zerk variants of the GF barb?

3. What about dual e lacerator either double throw or frenzy as amp damage source? 1 in 3 chance to proc, and prevent monster heal. I guess the chance to flee could slow your runs.

4. How good would you say the gambling is with the gold / other drops / runes are? Do you just gamble circs?

This post was edited by Sam43 on Nov 29 2021 05:09pm

1. Obedience deals cold damage, which is a no-go imo. If you really want a Crushing Blow weapon, get Upgraded Hone Sundan with 3x Lem runes (or 2x Lem + 1 Amn Rune) & use Demon Limb on your Merc; otherwise, Arioc's Needle is also really good (non-Ethereal is fine, and Ethereal should be pretty cheap anyway). Kira's is fine, but not great; better to use Tal Rasha's imo for the built-in Life Leech, depends on your Merc's Resists. Treachery is potato; if you need an alternative to CoH / Fort, just use Duriel's Cuirass (high Resists) or Gladiator's Bane with an Um Rune (has Cannot be Frozen)

2. I think if the cooldown goes away, DPS builds will get better, but I suspect WolfBarb will turn out even better than Frenzy & WW. Will need to test more.

3. I tried that, and found it clunky (kinda like wielding Brand). It's technically feasible, but it means you're weapon-swapped while your Merc is attacking, so you sometimes lose out on drops since the Merc is slaying stuff while your GF/MF gear isn't on. You CAN do it, I just don't like it.

4. I just gamble Coronets personally, but Circlets at 92+ is great. Amulets at 95. Rings are always profitable given the sheer sample size, as you have way more chances to roll okay stuff, just takes waay longer to buy and sell imo.

This post was edited by Exokek on Nov 29 2021 06:02pm

amazing guide thank you